This Is Why You Should Save Your Electronics Receipts

This might be confusing, but yes, we are posting about Monster Cable, but not about them suing someone with the audacity to call their unrelated product “Monster.” Instead, a Monster Cable product is involved in a cautionary tale about buying electronics from a third party with no receipt. Will bought a sealed set of Beats by Dr. Dre Touring Headphones from someone on Craigslist, who claimed to have received them as a gift and didn’t have the receipt. (The item retails for about $180.) The amazing deal turned out to be slightly less amazing when the earbuds turned out to be defective, and Monster replaced them with…another defective set. Sometimes, you’re better off paying retail.

On June 7th, 2011 I purchased Beat By Dr. Dre Touring headphones brand new on Craigslist. I know what you are thinking, they are from Craigslist so it was a bad idea with all the fakes. The guy I purchased them from already had another Pair of Beats By Dr. Dre and received this pair as a gift. I took the headphones home after getting a discount price. When I got home and opened the sealed package and plugged the headphones in I was overwhelmed by the amount of ear bud choices. Wanting to hear this new headphones I plugged them into my computer.

I quickly realized the brand new headphones were broken. I emailed the Craigslist guy who offered to refund me as he didn’t have the receipt because they were a gift. I declined saying I would contact Monster for a replacement. On June 8th, 2011 I called Monster and they offered to replace them as a one time courtesy if I pay shipping there and they would verify authenticity. I shipped the headphones out at the cost of $10 and insured to affix tracking. I received replacement headphones on June 21, 2011. I opened the one again brand new headphones and found them to have the exact same problem with one of the ear phones much quieter than the other. I have used several devices to verify this and have had contact Monster through Twitter, Phone, and email to request another replacement. All getting the reply of sorry but you don’t have a receipt so we can only do one courtesy replacement.

Lesson learned: when dealing with warranty replacements, take a refund if offered instead of dealing with the company if you don’t have the receipt.